


The Clockwork Emperor

by MadMarquis



Category: Dishonored (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, High Chaos (Dishonored), High Chaos Corvo Attano, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pair so rare you post the first english fic, Rare Pairings, i'm not even sorry
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-28
Updated: 2020-04-28
Packaged: 2021-03-02 05:42:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,165
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23889931
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MadMarquis/pseuds/MadMarquis
Summary: “Well, it looks like our game is coming to an end.”The fear had left his expression now, replaced with a calm sort of defiance. From behind the safety of his mask, Corvo stared into those calculating eyes; how easy it would be to simply pull the trigger and wipe them from the face of the earth, to destroy any trace of the knowledge they had so deftly excised from his soul… and yet he hesitated.“It’s your move, Corvo. What will you do? I must say, I’m eager to know the answer, even if I only have a moment to savor it.”---An alternate reality in which Corvo finds a different way to spare the Grand Inventor. Little did he know that a simple act of mercy could lead to so many consequences...
Relationships: Corvo Attano/Kirin Jindosh
Comments: 12
Kudos: 26





	The Clockwork Emperor

_He could only look on as the scene played out, time feeling as though it had slowed down._

_The throne room had erupted into chaos, and before him stood Delilah, the cold look in her eyes a stark contrast to her flame-like attire. He watched helplessly as Emily was turned into stone, willing his muscles to move._

_They finally budged, and Corvo felt himself lurch forward toward Delilah, plunging his sword deep into her chest without a moments hesitation. Except, suddenly, the figure on the end of his blade was not Delilah, but Dr. Hypatia, her eyes wide with terror and confusion. Remorse bloomed in his chest as blood seeped out from hers, but it was too late. There was nothing he could do._

Corvo was awoken suddenly as a particularly strong wave rocked the Dreadful Wale, the real memories of the events that had transpired that day in Dunwall returning to him shortly afterwards. They couldn’t dispel the dark images of his dream, though; after all, it was really just two true memories in one, wasn’t it?

She hadn’t been herself then, but the reality was that Alexandria Hypatia was dead, by his own hand. He thought he was doing what had to be done. By the time he found what was left of her assistant, Vasco, and the desperate note he had left in his final moments, it was too late. The deed had been done.

Corvo shook his head in an attempt to clear out his regrets as he set about getting ready for the day. He’d be heading out towards the mansion of the Grand Inventor, Kirin Jindosh, to rescue Anton Sokolov and put an end to Jindosh’s plans for an army of clockwork soldiers. The only question was, how? His nightmare hung heavily in the back of his mind as he headed out onto the deck to meet Meagan by the skiff.

They set out with little conversation, the silence only breaking when Meagan gave Corvo some advice about getting to the mansion, along with an uncharacteristically emotional reminder of how important rescuing Sokolov was to her, once they were close to the dock.

He didn’t say it at the time, but Corvo knew he wouldn’t need her advice; he had done this all before, and by now all the sneaking around and cutting down guards he had to do to reach the carriage station was second nature. His thoughts were preoccupied with what he would do once he reached the mansion, and before he knew it, he was stepping into the carriage, leaving behind a trail of blood he had hardly noticed making.

The carriage was forced to make an unwelcome stop in the Upper Aventa District, as the gate leading to Jindosh’s mansion was closed. The code to open the gate was easy enough to find, though, and after a few soldiers thrown violently into walls by supernatural wind and a couple of bullets spent, he was off again.

Corvo couldn’t help but feel a sense of awe and admiration as he approached the mansion; it already seemed, just from the view from outside, to be a fascinating work of art. What a shame that it had to be owned by a man like Kirin Jindosh.

Stepping inside, he immediately noticed an audiograph sitting by a plate of fresh fruit. He played the audiograph and was greeted by the voice of Jindosh himself, giving him a pleasant yet threatening welcome to his home. Corvo was unfazed by his casual arrogance; whatever he was about to face, he was confident it couldn’t be any worse than what he’d encountered so far.

Corvo pushed through the double doors, taking a moment to gaze around the large room he found himself in. Somehow, despite all the lavish décor, the room seemed to have managed to lack any exits besides the one behind him. The only feature that caught his eye was a strange lever situated near the center of the room; if there was any way to move deeper into the mansion, it had to rest with that lever.

Bracing himself for a trap, he pulled the lever.

With a cacophony of shifting gears, the walls began to switch, and the center panel dropped out of the floor; it seemed as though the entire room were rearranging itself. The sound of a speaker crackling to life jolted him into action, and he moved towards the stairs that were rapidly forming. Not great cover, but it provided some high ground at least. Hiding behind cover wouldn’t do him any good if he had no idea where his enemy was coming from anyway.

“Ah, someone’s activated one of the mechanisms in my house. Welcome, visitor.”

Corvo started as Jindosh’s voice came from a speaker somewhere, the voice seeming to surround him from all sides. The man continued on with a long monologue as Corvo slowly made his way up the stairs, trying to get a better view of the area without drawing any more attention to himself than Jindosh had already drawn for him.

“I invite you to meet me face to face. Come over to the glass door, here in the upper hall.”

Corvo couldn’t help but feel curious about the invitation, despite how many red flags it sent up. Was it some sort of trap? Or something else? He crept towards the indicated door, all senses on high alert.

Looking through the glass, he spotted a tall, slim man standing on the other side of a chasm. Corvo watched as he pulled a lever, which caused a bridge to begin forming. The man confidently strode across it, and stared back at Corvo through the door. He could guess from his look and general demeanor that this was the famed Kirin Jindosh himself, come to see his newest uninvited guest.

Once they were face to face, Jindosh started on one of his usual monologues, puzzling out Corvo’s identity. What drew Corvo’s attention, though, was not his words, but the manner in which he spoke them. Arrogant, as expected, but with a precision that seemed to justify that arrogance. Not to mention, the way his eyes seemed to look right through him, working their way into the darkest corners of his mind, discovering his true character. It seemed to Corvo that Jindosh was examining him the way he would any strange and unusual device; slowly but surely mentally disassembling him into understandable pieces, finding out all the what’s and why’s of Corvo’s entire being.

Before he knew it, Jindosh was stepping back across the bridge, retreating to the safety of his lab. He also alerted two of his signature clockwork soldiers, and Corvo had to admit that they proved to be the first challenging opponents he’d faced in a very long time. He left the resulting scrap heap where it was and began exploring the mansion further, followed by the disgruntled disembodied voice of its creator.

Once he got a solid understanding of how the mansion would transform upon pulling each lever, navigating to Jindosh’s lab proved easier than anticipated. He could feel his heart rate increasing as he rode the elevator up, images of his nightmare, among other similarly gruesome scenes, rising unbidden to his mind as he got closer and closer to his intended target.

Corvo stepped out onto the upper floor of the lab and was greeted by two more clockwork soldiers. They took up the whole of his vision, a quick look around revealing no trace of the inventor who he knew must be somewhere nearby. Dispatching them took longer than he’d have liked, even with the Outsider’s power granting him some control over time and space, but eventually the deadly masterpieces were dismantled just like the others.

In the resulting silence, Jindosh’s location was much easier to discern. He’d fled from his desk, where Corvo had expected him to be, and was now moving rapidly towards the exit on the lower floor. It was a simple thing to vault over the railing and descend safely to the floor below, and he moved to close the gap between them as the sound of more mechanisms echoed throughout the room.

In the mere seconds it took to reach the bridge, Jindosh was halfway across the empty expanse, running at a full sprint to avoid being dropped into the river below as the bridge raised itself piece by piece behind him. Thinking quickly, Corvo called upon the power to stop time once again, before running and leaping across the chasm at full speed, just barely getting close enough to the opposite edge to Blink safely past his quarry and step onto solid ground.

He stood back a few paces, leveled his pistol at the frozen form’s head, and waited for time to resume as normal.

In the moment the world began to move again, Corvo watched as Jindosh’s expression changed from resolved to horrified, finding himself suddenly caught between two deadly obstacles. He had to keep moving, lest he fall to the one which was more certain, but as soon as he stepped off the bridge, he stopped short, standing only a few feet from the barrel of the assassin’s gun.

“Well, it looks like our game is coming to an end.”

The fear had left his expression now, replaced with a calm sort of defiance. From behind the safety of his mask, Corvo stared into those calculating eyes; how easy it would be to simply pull the trigger and wipe them from the face of the earth, to destroy any trace of the knowledge they had so deftly excised from his soul… and yet he hesitated.

“It’s your move, Corvo. What will you do? I must say, I’m eager to know the answer, even if I only have a moment to savor it.”

He felt a chill run down his spine as he realized there was nothing but truth in the inventor’s words. Even when faced with his own imminent death, his hunger for knowledge could not be abated. To him everything was a puzzle, and if he died here, he would still die knowing the solution. Corvo felt the ghosts of his past hanging heavily on his entire being, and eventually managed to find his voice.

“I can’t let you keep making weapons for Delilah. I have to stop you, here and now.”

He hoped it wasn’t obvious that his words were more to steel his own resolve than anything else, but a slight quirk of an eyebrow dashed those hopes.

“Is that all? You want me to stop selling her my inventions? Are you sure you aren’t looking to take revenge, to punish me for my role in her successful coup?”

Oh, how he wanted to pull the trigger and get this over with! But Hypatia’s dying visage haunted him still, and he had to ask himself if this was really the only way.

“I don’t need revenge. I only need you out of my way.”

“Really? Well, you’ve surprised me, Royal Protector… I suppose, in that case, we can work out a deal.”

There was a palpable tension in the air as Corvo slowly lowered his weapon, though he kept it in his hand just in case. When he wasn’t immediately forthcoming with his terms, Jindosh went right ahead and continued speaking, as he tended to do.

“Frankly, I don’t care who has my inventions, as long as my research is funded. I mean, I love our fair Empress, I really do, but if it’s between her or me, the choice is obvious.” He paused then, stopping to light and take a puff from his pipe as if this was a perfectly casual chat, and not a literal life and death situation. “So, how is this going to go?”

Corvo had to think for a moment; this really hadn’t been his plan when he walked in here, but this could definitely work out in his favor if he played his cards right. “I’m going to take Sokolov and bring him back to our base of operations, so in exchange for allowing you to live, you’ll be coming with us. You’ll tell me everything you know about Delilah’s plans, and once this is all over, we can discuss conditions for letting you go home and get back to work.”

Jindosh’s face twisted in displeasure at the terms, but he was unfortunately in no position to refuse them. “Fine, I accept. I’ll probably be safer there than here once she catches word of this anyway…”

Corvo gestured for him to walk ahead, gun still in hand, and the two of them headed towards where Sokolov was being held. He wasn’t exactly thrilled with this situation, but he’d managed to avoid any more bloodshed, and for that he was thankful. Soon, he, Sokolov, and Jindosh would all be safely aboard the Dreadful Wale, and they could begin planning their next move.

There were certainly worse ways for missions to end.


End file.
